Worm Who?
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Taylor Hebert never got to trigger in a locker, because the summer before her Junior year at high school, she found a pocket watch that her mother had left behind after she died.
1. Worm Who? 1-0

Worm Who?

Worm Who? 1.0

Taylor found the pocket watch in the bottom of the jewelry box. And that meant it had been her mother's, even though it was a men's piece. "Hey dad? Why did mom have this watch?" Maybe it was something from her grandfather, which her mother had barely ever mentioned.

"Not sure," Danny said as he looked over from where he was taking down the curtains for some late spring cleaning (actually during summer break, but you did what you had to when you could). "Would you like it? As something to remember her? Maybe you can find out something more about it?"

"I'd love that, dad," the fifteen year old teen said.

"She really liked that pocket watch and the large clock in the corner behind the couch. She called it the most precise time piece in the universe." Danny frowned even as he wiped his pale, freckled brow. "Huh. I can't remember the last time that was wound. You should take care of that, too, okay?"

"Sure, dad." This wasn't exactly fun, but it was better than dealing with school and the terrible trio. She was so glad she was out of school for the summer. Taylor spun the watch, noting the strange circular markings. It didn't look like artwork, as it was oddly geometrical. She tried to pry it open, hoping to find if it was inscribed with a name, but it seemed sealed or welded shut. She put it back on the table, going through some more rings and bracelets.

But it was down at the bottom of the jewelry box she found what looked to be an odd key. She would have ignored it, but it had the exact same geometric circles that the pocketwatch had.

"Weird." She gave it a shrug, then set it on the pocket watch.

Five minutes later (and six rings, two bracelets) she was pulled out of playing with the semi precious items by her father.

"Taylor, did you wind that clock already?" he called out as he looked up from his wristwatch.

"Not yet. I'll go do it now." Taylor then grabbed the pocketwatch and pocketed the two items.

In the front room, she nodded as she shoved the couch out of the way slightly. She pulled on the handle, but it wouldn't budge the very large, standing clock. She leaned over to look at the lock.

And then blinked as this clock had those glyphs, too.

"That's... weird. Oh, I bet the key opens the lock." She pulled out the flat key, inserted it and then unlocked the door. It pulled open easily then. She frowned, as she did not see the pendulum inside. She stuck her head in to get a better look.

Then she pulled her head out.

"An illusion?" She looked at the clock strangely. Then stuck her head back in.

No, she could still see a large room made of burnished brass with some weird table in the center of the room. She reached in...

...and then tumbled to the ground as somehow the doorway she was in was now wider than it had been outside.

"This is crazy. It's bigger on the inside than the outside. Was mom some sort of Tinker?" she asked as she scrambled up to her feet.

The lights in the room brightened ever so slightly. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought, as she realized that there was no dust.

"Hello?" she called out. She waited, but the only response she saw was some flickering lights from the crystal pillar in the center of the six-sided console(?) in the center of the room.

The console had just the most simple controls drawn or painted on with ink in that strange language again. It was tantalizing like she should be able to read it, but it was so alien that Taylor had no idea even where it was from.

"Hello?" She placed her hands on the console to lean around to look behind it when glowing holograms floated off the painted on surfaces. Her hands pulled back like they had been burned. "Um, English, please?"

Like a wave of air flowing past her, most of the floating holograms switched to English.

Taylor whistled at that. "This is something made by a Tinker. Was mom one of them? A cape?" She pulled out the pocket watch again from her pocket.

It clicked open without the least hint of resistance when she tried to open it.

And then a stream of gold, glowing particle smash into her open-mouthed face from the open time piece.

* * *

Taylor blinked her eyes open exactly ten minutes later. Ow. "What was that?"

She sat up, her body definitely telling her that the floor here was hard and cold. She looked around, even as she clambered to her feet while using the control console as a hand hold to pull herself the rest of the way up. After that she picked up the pocket watch.

Darn. Still no engravings from her mother's side of the family. It looked perfectly normal for some tinker device that had blasted her with-,

(),../;';()l^l%l%'%l$,/,' (&(&#.,.^^!%$~$%^~!%^-

-pure chronal regeneration energy.

She blinked at that. How did she know that? Had that glowing dust given her some sort of information into her brain? That was sort of scary. She tried to focus her eyes on the console in front of her. After a minute, she removed her glasses to rub her eyes, only to blink as she realized her eyesight was crystal clear without them.

"Whoa." She double-checked, but she had perfect eyesight without them. After that though, she looked at the controls. "Materialization status? Chameleon Circuit status? Temporal coordinates relative to the local galaxy. Local galaxy?"

She started to look at the console much closer. She carefully poked at the different control. Sensors, noting a major chronal anomaly under the ship's graveyard and a note that there was a new, moving anomaly that had started appearing a few months ago. Well, appeared in random locations but locked to the spatial location of Earth's surface. Interesting.

She lost herself for the next half an hour, trying to understand the controls. There were a lot of 'inoperative' options or 'under repair'. Had her mother not finished making it? Or had she broken it?

Taylor itched to explore it further, going to the opposite door. It had barely opened when she found herself staring into a ragged four foot wide hole into some sort of cave across the hallway. She then looked out carefully through it, see what appeared to be some sort of city-scape curving out below her like a bowl. Then she realized it curved upwards probably just as far.

Suddenly, all of those nonfunctional controls made much, much more sense.

That wasn't a city out there, but part of some huge thing. Something she was inside of.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked herself rhetorically. She turned left and started to check doors on the long, curving hallway.

The third door on the left was a large bedroom with books and wardrobes strewn about.

* * *

"Taylor! Where are you?" Danny called out a couple of hours later. He walked into the front room, taking in the slightly worn, comfortable couches and silver and black carpet with geometric patterns. It looked like Taylor had tried to open the clock, but it was closed right now.

He checked her room and then the 'normal' places. Not her bedroom, the bathroom or the kitchen. Finally he even checked the basement, but found her nowhere in the house.

"Where did she go?" he asked.

He then walked outside, checking the yard. Danny was starting to get worried, so headed back in. He looked over at the phone on the table near the kitchen. He really only knew one place to call. He tapped out a number long memorized, that he used to call almost daily.

"Hello, Alan? Is Taylor there?" Danny asked.

Alan's voice sounded slightly confused. "No, I haven't seen her in months. Emma's over to her friend Madison's place. She and Sophia headed over there this morning."

"Oh, sorry to hear that. I guess they've had a falling out then." Danny suddenly had an epiphany that he really didn't know what had been going on with his daughter for the last year. She had grown quiet and morose, never seeming to go out any more. Or it was always to the library or maybe shopping. But never with anyone.

"We should get together and do a barbecue or something again. Maybe for the 4th of July? Get a few of the other guys and their kids and have get drunk," Alan said in a cheerful voice.

The clock behind the couch opened up and Taylor stepped out, coughing a little bit of gold sparkling dust out. She had some folded clothing in her hands with a fedora hat on top. She sneaked up the stairs, putting it on her bed. She then tromped down the stairs.

"Oh, there she is. I'll give you a call after talking to some of the guys. See you," Danny said, then hung up. "Taylor! Where were you?" It was not quite a bellow.

"Oh, sorry. I was around. I found some of mom's stuff. I think she might have left a journal. Maybe from her family." Taylor held up a book with two geometric circle patterns on the cover.

"Your mother loved that type of artwork. Sounds like fun. Hey, I talked to Alan and we're going to have a barbecue at his place." Danny's face then turned more serious. "Taylor, did you and Emma have a fight?"

His daughter's face turned absolutely pale. "No."

"But you aren't friends anymore? What happened?" he stated firmly.

"Sophia happened. Her new best friend. And..." He was asking her directly, forcing the issue. "She's really mean now. They've even picking on me and anyone I try to hang out with. So I don't really have any friends at school." She hung her head, hating how she felt. Weird. That almost felt like a bandage being ripped off.

"Well, then what you need to do is get some friends out of school before you go back." Danny suddenly cracked a smile. "I'm sure it would break your heart to be forced to go down to the boardwalk several times a week."

"Really? But they're going to want me to buy something or the security guys will rough me up like they do the runaways," Taylor noted while biting her lower lip.

"There's a couple of bookstores there. You can browse, picking up a new book and then wander a couple of stores while meeting kids. I'll give you an extra twenty or thirty dollars, but only spend it if they hassle you, okay?" At her nod, he smiled back to his daughter. "We'll figure it out. It's what family does."

"Thanks, dad." Taylor actually smiled again.

* * *

That was how Taylor found herself at a local bookstore that next day in the late morning. Chores were to be done early and then she could go out and hopefully meet up people in the stores. Like that was at all plausible. The only girl in the store other than the clerk and cashier was a girl with long blue stripes. She was nursing a cup of coffee next to the coffee bar.

Maybe she should look at understanding time and physics better? That clock really does something with time and space. It was bigger on the inside than the outside, after all! She pulled out a primer for physics, opened it up.

Five minutes later she was about to throw it through the window. "Useless junk. So much is just wrong."

Taylor didn't see the girl reading the newspaper looking at her in surprise for that, even as she picked up a larger book. It went back on the shelf a minute later. The next book was three inches thick, with small text and complicated diagrams. Stephen Hawking was supposed to be the authority in physics, right?

Ten minutes later, her hand was itching for a red pen to start correcting the book.

"Problem?" the blonde girl with blue-tips and streaks asked from right behind her.

"Oh, um, just seeing something that doesn't look right," she muttered distractedly.

"Oh really?" The freckled girl's face had a very wide grin. "What did he get wrong?"

"Really, everything but the basics," Taylor groused as she flipped pages.

The girl with blue streaks was giving her an odd look. "So you go to Arcadia High?"

"No." The taller girl blinked. "Huh. I haven't ever studied physics. How do I know this stuff?"

"Congratulations, you are a parahuman," the other girl said in a hushed voice. "So you just triggered?"

"Triggered-?" Taylor was suddenly studying the girl in front of her. "You have super powers too, don't you?"

"Oh, not at all. I was just interested in you getting frustrated in reading those books," the girl lied smoothly.

Taylor stared at her in suspicion. "You're lying. Why do I know that you are lying?"

"Shit. Some sort of empathy? Look, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make a problem," the blonde said worried. She actually took a step backwards with her hands up to placate

"Um, I am? And what do you mean triggered? And you aren't being a problem. I think." Taylor stared at the other girl worriedly.

"You know, where your powers kicked in? It always happens when you are at your lowest, lost in despair or fear. And you have no idea what I'm talking about." Now her blue eyes were open wide in surprise. "What the hell?"

"Um, I ran into something weird?" Taylor said. This was starting to be really strange.

"Something? A tinker device." The blonde wavered on her feet. "Fuck. Need to stop."

"Let me help you," the taller girl said, helping her walk over to a table to sit back down at her cup of coffee. "Headache? Let me get some aspirin-"

"Tylenol, please," the girl begged. "Four of them. This is going to be a bad one." She swallowed her coffee and just rocked in her seat.

Finally, after what seemed a too long time, four pills were pushed into her hand.

"Here you go. I even got you another cup of coffee. Do we need to get you home so you can lay down?" Taylor looked down worriedly.

"Can't go to the shelter until five o'clock," she muttered. She dry swallowed the pills and started to drink the coffee as fast as possible.

"Well, you can use our couch for a while. Are you okay taking the bus?"

"I don't even know your name." Blue eyes were staring at her blearily.

"I'm Taylor!" She even tried to smile.

"Hello, Taylor. My name's Lisa," the runaway admitted. "Um, could you make sure not to tell anyone about my powers?"

She lied there, too, Taylor noted as she agreed with a nod. But better to not bring that up right now. Oh, and she needed to buy that physics book. Which would blow her entire wad that her dad had given her.

But she just might have stumbled onto a new friend.

* * *

Lisa was feeling better an hour later as she blocked out the light with a pillow on the Hebert's couch. No using her power for at least a week. Which was a problem, but she would cope.

"I made some sandwiches," Taylor said as she came back into the family room. She set the plate with some peanut butter sandwiches down on the coffee table.

"Manna from heaven," Lisa said with wan smile.

"So your super power-"

"-just 'power'. Calling everything super is silly."

Taylor nodded at that. "So your power can give you headaches? That sucks."

"Says the girl that didn't just have a near migraine," Lisa grumbled back, then took a bite of her sandwich.

"Some sort deductive power, allowing you to figure out things. Hey, stay right there." The host stood up and disappeared into the room by the front door.

Lisa wondered why she went there, but at the twinge of her power trying to reassert itself, she ignored that. Five minutes later, Taylor reappeared with a six inch wide tube that she removed the cap.

"I think this is a medical kit. At least that's what it says on it." Taylor shifted her long, curly hair over her shoulder.

The runaway blinked, as she didn't see any normal writing on the thing at all. Just tiny circle pictographs around the open top. "Funky."

A silver rod came out and Taylor pointed it at her. A green light shown from the end and it made a hum. "Oh, a {Sonic Health Sensor}. Neat. Umm, the hum tells me something. Or, some weird organ in the middle of your brain is causing the pain by slightly expanding the blood vessels as it enters your brain and irritating your neural connections chemically. No idea why though." She rummaged around in the tube again, pulling out another simple rod with red ends.

Taylor then pushed the end against Lisa's temple for a second.

"Ow! Are you trying to make my headache... worse?" Lisa blinked in surprise. "Fucking no way. You cured my migraine just like that? Wow. Fucking wow."

"I'll have to keep that handy. It looks like it can fix most basic issues." That was rather more neat than she had expected, Taylor thought to herself.

"So you made that? That's high grade tinker gear," the blonde noted in an impressed tone.

"Not me. I just found it. I think it was my mother's," Taylor admitted.

"You mother is a Tinker?" Lisa raised an eyebrow in question at that as she took a few big bites of her PB&J sandwich.

"She died in a car crash. But I don't think she was a Tinker. I'm still trying to figure this all out. It's weird, okay?" Taylor was almost glaring at her.

"No problem. If you need any help with figuring things out, I'd be happy to help next week. I really overstrained my power, sorry." Lisa gave her a smile and nod of her head.

The front door creaked open and thumped against the wall. "Taylor?" Danny called out.

"Dad! Where did you go?" She bounced to her feet to stick her head into the hall.

"Just over to Perry's Market to pick up a couple of things. And some beer when I go over to Alan's for that party." Danny chuckled at her confusion. "I'm not going to make you go over to Emma's place if she's picking on you. Maybe I can figure out what's going on."

"Oh, okay. I thought we were going to go to the Super Stop & Shop tomorrow? And I brought a new friend over. Lisa? This is my dad. He's going to insist you call him Danny," Taylor said.

"Hello, Danny. Sorry to bother you guys, but Taylor insisted I come over when I got a headache," she said with a grin on her face.

"Nice to meet you. How about some grilled hamburgers in celebration?" the red-headed father said with a terribly wide grin.

"Sounds great," Taylor said. "You'll stay for supper before you have to go?"

"Sure. Free food is always good," Lisa replied in a glib tone.

* * *

After the door closed behind Lisa, Taylor turned back to finish the dishes. But she found her dad finishing them up. He set the last plate into the dishwasher.

"So you met at the The Book Shack?" he asked.

"Yeah, she was having some coffee and was interested in a book I was reading. Um, I sort of spent most of my money on it, actually. But it's really neat. Oh, I'm going to meet Lisa tomorrow and do a matinee, okay?" The reminder of the book upstairs on her work desk had her itching to read it and try to go over the things she had seen wrong.

"I think it was worth it. It's good to see you smile again. Is she from Boston? I think I heard that in her voice?" he asked as he sat down at the small dinner table next to the fridge.

"I'll find out. It really didn't come up yet," Taylor admitted.

"Well, I'm going to head to watch my cop show, okay?" He waited for her nod and then headed into the family room at the back of the house.

Taylor quickly ran up to her room, grabbing her two books and then back down the stairs quietly. Her key opened the clock and she stepped into the control room. She looked up at the rotating section up above.

"Quinary Control Room? What the heck happened here?" she wondered to herself. She wandered over to the control room. She swiped at a panel, opening up a large, floating window. She was seeing the front room again.

She moved the sensor platform a little ways outside, then down the street. In moments, she had actually traced the path to the library.

On a whim, she actually sent the sensor into the library. She giggled as she saw the librarian escorting some teens out as she readied to close the building down for the weekend. She leaned forward.

"I wonder." Taylor's fingers started to dance over the floating control screens. "Yes. Computer access? Let's visit Parahuman Online. And now a search for time themed heroes and villains." It might give her a clue about what was going on.

"Oh, that's who's been making those weird anomalies around town. Clockblocker. I wonder how he got that name?" she muttered.

Several more people appeared, causing her to frown and narrow her lips even more than normal. Gray Boy. Phir Se. And others. No tinkers that made time devices though.

She nodded at that. It probably would be too power intensive normally. In fact, the TARDIS...

"TARDIS? Where did that name come from?" she asked no one. Then she shook her head.

The TARDIS was almost totally depleted and draining off that anomaly under the docks was barely filling the reserves. It would take hundreds of years before it recovered, though it was slowly fixing the damage. 25 % loss of mass.

Taylor frowned. The door was connected to the fifth control room. She suddenly had the thought that this TARDIS had been in some sort of battle. And had barely survived.

She pushed the physics books to the side and pulled open what she thought was a journal of some sort, starting at the end.

After about ten minutes, she had just started to grapple with the concept of a war through time and space where whole worlds were destroyed retroactively and entire species un-made by both sides. The author, Grecia, was a Time Lord (Time Lady, actually) drafted into the war after she managed to pass the exams in her fifty-fourth year. Their TARDIS had been ambushed by three Dalek saucers and had barely defeated them when the last survivor of the crew of ten had been warned by the TARDIS that six more Dalek ships were going to arrive in just seconds.

In desperation, she flung the TARDIS into a crack in space and time into another universe. When she crashed here, she said she was going to use something called a Chameleon Arch which should hide her from her enemies.

Taylor stared at the book blankly where there were no more entries.

Her mother was an alien. A {Gallifreyan} her mind provided a memory into her mind, somehow. Better than human, but not really superhuman like the capes of Earth. A little tougher, some odd time senses and incredible minds.

She sat there for about fifteen minutes, then turned to look at the central column of the control console. "So I have a broken time machine, built by advanced aliens that just happen to look human. And a lot of weird science in my head." Along with an intuitive understanding of almost all history. (Though she wasn't sure how that worked even).

She tapped and swiped controls, golden holograms moving at her tentative movements. Her mind was already putting together an outfit from the clothing her mother had left. The long coat, the hat, sturdy boots that she could run in. Perhaps use a scarf to hide her face?

How about a perception filter? That might work.

Were there any weapons or tools she would need. Taylor blinked as the TARDIS console in front of her extended a rod of metal about ten inches long. It was a basic tool that could be used as a scanner, feeding the information in an incredibly sonic signal to Time Lords and then actually could use its meta-sonic waves to interact with almost all non-organic technology. It had a fairly long, complicated name officially.

But everyone just called it a Sonic Screwdriver for some reason.

Now she just had to find a massive source of chronitons.

Wait, she had a solution. Her wide mouth curled in a smile.

* * *

Jerry hated working just inside the front entrance of the Boston Museum. The concrete tomb for Ronald Greer was totally soundproof, but the security guard could just imagine he could hear the screaming man, living being stabbed over and over. The donation box was always there, to remember Ronald and hopefully help figure out a fix for being stuck in a time loop by Gray Boy ten years ago.

So the flash of red streaming energy that coalesced into a thin figure wearing a leather long coat and fedora was not at all what he expected to see on this Sunday morning. It had some elegant men's scarf wrapped around the lower part of his or her face and tucked into the coat.

"Uh, hello. While I've technically broken in here, it's for a very good reason," the figure said, gloved hands held up to not be threatening.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you want here?" he snapped out even as he pulled out his trusty 9mm pistol and pointed it at her. His bald head was suddenly damp with sweat.

"I want to see if I can free the victim here from Gray Boy's loop. If you'll let me. Please?"

"If you can do that, I need to get an ambulance here first. Can you wait about ten to twenty minutes?" the security officer asked. He holstered his gun and pulled out his cell phone.

"That would be better than trying to use my... first aid kit." Taylor had to admit she wasn't sure she could figure it out quick enough. She needed to take some first aid lessons, she realized belatedly.

Jerry finished calling 911 and then the curator of the museum. "Say, what's your name?"

She stared blankly at him for a moment. Oh, he wasn't asking her real name, was he? "Um, I haven't chosen a cape name. Sorry. This is my first outing as a hero."

"No problem. You some sort of Tinker?" he asked with a smile.

"Something like that," she admitted. After thinking for a long moment on her name, she suddenly had an idea. "Call me Time Lady."

The EMTs actually made it in five minutes, but they agreed to wait for the ambulance.

"The curator will be here in an hour. He's the only one with a key," Jerry said apologetically.

"No problem. You don't mind if I unlock it, do you? Won't hurt it at all." The sonic screwdriver came out of a pocket and was waved at the lock from about ten inches, whining noisily for the duration. With a click, the door unlocked.

"Neat," the young woman ambulance driver said with a intrigued smile on her face.

The large door was pulled open, showing the loop of time that Ronald was stuck in. The screaming loop was very disconcerting.

"Okay. Let's see if this chroniton absorber works as advertised," Time Lady explained. The vaguely pistol and blocky shaped device emitted a purple pulsing beam and after about thirty second the bubble flickered and then collapsed.

Ronald Greer fell to the ground, the spike in his stomach leaking blood.

"Go! Go!" the lead EMT called out. "Let's save him!"

Jerry's mouth was open wide in shock. Then he looked over to where the woman was putting away her equipment. "You really did it. He was my mentor when I first started working here. He saved my life when Gray Boy was here."

He walked over to her and held out his right hand. He took her hand and shook it firmly.

"Thank you very much. Are you going to try and free the other victims?" Jerry asked.

"Maybe not personally, but I'll try to figure something out," the Time Lady said uncomfortably. She felt slightly dirty for using this to her advantage.

But she was helping people too, so that balanced it out.

She pulled out a small device and pushed a button, disappearing in a stream of red particles from a transmat device she had found in the TARDIS.

A moment later she was back in the quinary control room of the TARDIS. She pulled down the scarf, a huge smile on her face.

"It worked!"


	2. Worm Who? 1-1

_**Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**_

You are currently logged in, Time Lady

You are viewing:

• Threads you have replied to

• AND Threads that have new replies

• OR private message conversations with new replies

• Thread OP is displayed.

• Ten posts per page

• Zero messages in private message history.

• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

You have zero infractions and no warnings.

** Topic: Gray Boy Trumped?**

**In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America**

_Zach5353 (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (Wannabe Artist)_

_Posted on June 20th, 2010:_

_Did you guys just hear? CNN is reporting that one of Gray Boy's victims was freed from his time loop up in Boston. Supposedly this new cape literally teleports in, uses a whole bunch of tinker gear and pop he's free. The victim is on his way to the hospital._

_Noble'sTorch (Experienced Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_I heard, and this is a big damn deal. Gray Boy was one of the capes that was an S-rank threat all by himself, and shutting his still-lasting effects down is a pretty big deal. Whoever this Cape is, the Protectorate/PRT should offer reasonable hourly salary for 'breakouts,' as well as helping keep his/her visits secret until after he/she has left, so nobody (like the S9) tries to take him/her out or keep her from freeing people. If they're a Tinker, offering to just outright buy the necessary tools would also be an option, but Tinkers tend to be pretty possessive of their best stuff._

_Dansen (I need some coffee.)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Yeah, I watched that CNN report. What a way for a newbie to make an entrance !_

_YoikoChan (Experienced Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_A cure for Grey Boy victims? If this is a joke, it's seriously bad taste. My dad's been stuck in a shack in our old house for the last ten years. This had better not be a fucking prank._

_EDIT:_

_Holy shit, it's real. I can't believe it. Is there any way we can contact her?_

_FIX'DIT: corrected gender. Hard to tell it's a girl on the vid..._

_Xiflex (New Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Its a big deal alright, but I wouldn't get my hopes up to far regarding the victims. Most people would be incurably insane or otherwise completely gone within weeks when trapped like that, and most of his victims have been stuck for a decade or more. Bar some serious mental rewiring (with all ethical concerns that has, if there is even anyone capable of that), these people are probably effectively dead, and will stay catatonic or basketcases the rest of their lives._

_Its nice to have hope, but in this case, I don't have much._

_Replied on June 20th, 2010: (New Member)_

_Re:Xiflex (New Member)_

_It's cyclical. Victims go insane but they don't stay insane. Eventually they get used to the torture and it becomes their new normal. After that, they stay pretty lucid. If the loop is long enough you can hold conversations with them. The PRT does make sure that the ones in long loops aren't left isolated. They even have psychiatrists that give them regular therapy._

_Scholastic Protector (Another Young Man With A Job)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Just saw the vid on YT, if I didn't I wouldn't even believe it. Someone out there can finally get those people out, even if its just to finally rest. Kudos to you Time Lady!_

_For something silly: Quick someone write a Grey Boy x Time Lady fic! This new epic rivalry is ship worthy! and yes i know Grey Boy is dead but Time magicks says otherwise!_

_Wyrmling (Lurker)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Well its nice for the families anyway so great work, Time Lady!_

_Wait a tinker with a knack for Time stuff, thats pretty high up there isn't it? tinkering whys i mean?_

_Zach5353 (Veteran Member) (Wannabe Artist)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Well, all she's done is disable the time loops, right? I mean, is she going for the 'noble' lady or just gender? Because if all her tech is good for is teleporting and disrupting time effects, that's not so useful and assigning a 'rating' for one showing is kind of jumping the gun. Though that Star Trek teleporter thing she used is probably worth its weight in rare earth metals to anyone._

_Could you imagine her helping get more people to Endbringer fights?_

_Archer Xl (Verified Cape)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Time Lady, interesting name. Still doing something nobody thought was possible._

_Awesome. I wonder what the slaughterhouse 9 will think of this?_

_Sasha13 (New User)_

_Replied on June 22nd, 2010_

_This is huge. I've got an uncle stuck in a Gray Boy loop, and it's pretty horrible. That's a heck of an accomplishment for a first appearance. I hope the Protectorate/PRT tries to hire this cape. She's a Tinker, and I wouldn't be all that surprised if she could duplicate the effect as well. I know I sure don't want a Tinker version of Gray Boy running around._

_Redhill (Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Let's be logical about this, people._

_First question: How did this 'Time Lady' know her solution would work? There are three obvious possibilities._

_1/ She has been experimenting on other Grey Boy victims. There is no public record of this, but we've all seen the rumours about unrecorded victims._

_2/ She can generate her own time loops, allowing her ample freedom to experiment._

_3/ She has some kind of remote scanning technology, allowing her to study Grey Boy's victims from her lab._

_The first option would be deeply worrying, and the second would still make her dangerous._

_Second question: What is her motive? Here, there are two obvious possibilities._

_a/ She wants to free Grey Boy's victims._

_b/ She wanted to field test her technology._

_The first would be deeply preferable, but the longer we go without a second victim being freed the less likely it becomes. We will have to regretfully conclude that she was only interested in the technical problem, not in ending suffering._

_DasBrot (Just Passing Through)_

_Replied on June 22nd, 2010_

_Gray Boy was scary. Good riddance to his memorials. Certainly wouldn't want anyone else figuring out how to weaponize his ability, but it had to happen eventually. I'm only glad the one dabbling in it seems to be fairly benign so far._

_Time Lady (New Member) (Provisional Cape)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_That's a good point about the Slaughterhouse 9. Thanks for mentioning it. I couldn't believe it when I found out that Gray Boy had over six thousand victims all over the US and Canada. I (ironically) don't have the time to run all over the USA to help release his victims. I'll have to think over a real solution. Hopefully soon._

_Zach5353 (Veteren Member) (Wannabe Artist) (Warned)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_You better not be pulling a ******ing prank. That's in real poor taste and can get you *****ing killed!_

_Brilliger (Moderator: Protectorate Main)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_Please don't try to be a Moderator. If you have a problem please use the Notify Moderator link._

_L33t (Verified Cape)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010:_

_Am I the only one having a strange sense of deja vu when I hear about this cape?_

_DeadCunning (Experienced Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_A tinker with power over time… it's got to be. It's finally happened. Don't you guys see? She's from the future! All hail our future overlord(lady?)!_

_Brilliger (Moderator: Protectorate Main)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_I just finished chatting with Dragon and I'm going to give you 'Provisional Cape' status, Time Lady. You managed to impress her by posting from a closed library's Internet connection with all of it's terminals turned off. She's still trying to figure that out._

_Ooghhgoo (New Member)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_So the theme is time?_

_Depending on what she can actually build, this has some pretty scary implications._

_Should we start checking if anyone matching her description starts winning a lot of money_

_BobRobOriginalBob (New Member) (BANNED)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_Man, 'she' is probably some weirdo gay freak that wants to be a woman. Did you see that picture? No breasts at all and kind of short and skinny. Just another damned Napoleon complex messed up mother****er._

_I hope the Slaughterhouse 9 visit him at home to teach him a lesson._

_Brilliger (Moderator: Protectorate Main)_

_Replied on June 20th, 2010_

_Comments of this nature are a violation of the user policy. Enjoy a month off from Parahuman Online. And don't bother trying to spoof your IP. Your phone isn't that cool._

Dragon kept a virtual eye out on that thread even as she finished backtracking Lady Time's IP address and location again. Just to verify that it really was coming from that hardware router without an incoming traffic that she could follow. At first she had thought it was some stupid kid trying to pretend to be a cape. She didn't want another Jenny Worth. But it appeared that 'Time Lady' really was online through a closed library. (Or at least was someone with really good Tinker gear).

Private message from Brilliger (Moderator: Protectorate Main): RE: Provisional Cape

_From Brilliger: I do hope you are Time Lady. I know that several members of the PRT and Protectorate would like to meet you. Dragon really was impressed by your hack._

_From Time Lady: I don't know how I go about verifying my Cape ID, sorry._

_From Time Lady: How do I go about setting up a meeting with Dragon or someone like Armsmaster? I have an idea how to help those poor people without making a target of myself. Man, I can't believe I didn't even think about the fact that the Slaughterhouse 9 might get upset._

_From Brilliger: I can forward a message. Dragon is probably out of the USA right now, so if you are in the Eastern Seaboard area, your best bet would be Armsmaster in Brockton Bay, Twinker in Boston, Double Time in NYC and Manifold in Washington D.C._

_From Time Lady: Armsmaster might be easiest. When could I meet him? And where?_

_From Brilliger: I can let him know. He'll probably PM you shortly._

_From Time Lady: Thanks!_

Dragon gave a virtual nod at that. She turned her presence back to another communication, this time with her virtual face and voice.

"Armsmaster? Do you mind if I disturb you?" Dragon asked from the speaker of a disabled screen. She knew he was in his room, but respected his privacy to not just turn on the camera.

"Sure, go ahead, Dragon," he replied

He looked tired, she noted. He was probably up late last night again. "You should be getting more sleep, Collin."

"Lung, Kaiser and Hookwolf got into a turf fight over on 9th and B Avenue. It's a real mess, but no one really won. They all left after we all showed up." He gave her a shrug.

"Well, you wouldn't believe it, but Time Lady popped onto the Parahuman Online boards. Somehow she's tapped into a hardware router in your Brockton Bay's public library. As far as I can tell, all of their computers except one server for their book look up service are all turned off. You might want to look at it, but it's not a priority. She wants to meet you. Probably as soon as possible. The mod Brilliger on the boards has sent you a private message about it," Dragon explained. "Do you mind if I am here virtually when you meet?"

"No problem on that case. Hmm." Armsmaster was going down the primate messages and the thread that Time Lady had posted on. "All right. She says she can be at the dock in ten minutes. I'll let the PRT guards there know she is coming. We'll be in the lobby meeting room, okay?"

"I'll be there. Oh, how sad. Ronald Greer died on the operating table," she said while she 'looked' off to the side like she was reading another screen.

Armsmaster just grunted. Who?

He managed a shower and was finishing pulling on his armor as he got a notice that a visitor was just arriving at the dock at the bottom of the Protectorate base. He had his visored helmet on as the elevator lift went down.

"Officer Brand? This is the person claiming to be Time Lady?" he asked as he stepped out of the elevator into the small lobby.

"Yes, sir. Appeared right out of thin air right where you told us she would be."

"Um, hello," Time Lady said.

Thin and not very tall, Armsmaster noted. Straight reddish hair, with a hint of freckles and green eyes under her fedora. Probably wouldn't be that tough to figure out who she was, if it wouldn't break the unspoken rules. "I understand you have a solution to the Gray Boy victims? Let's go into this meeting room and you can make your pitch."

Time Lady nodded, following him into the small room filled mostly with a table and six chairs. They walls were painted an unapealing pale green.

"Dragon asked if she could be here. Not physically, but by video chat," Armsmaster stated bluntly.

"Hello, Time Lady. I'm Dragon. Nice to meet you," the face that appeared on the screen said.

"Nice to meet you, Dragon. I'm a big fan. I have to admit that Alexandria was always my favorite, though," the girl replied meekly.

"That's fine." Dragon looked like she was going to continue, but was interrupted.

"So you have a solution to the Gray Boy victims?" the man there stated bluntly.

"Um, yes." She reached into her leather overcoat and pulled out her Chroniton Absorber. "This is good for up to twenty uses before it overloads so I need to drain it before that happens. I'm willing to let the Protectorate use this as long as it is returned after twenty uses."

"Why not the PRT?" Armsmaster asked, his tone still unfriendly.

"I don't think they would be able to protect it from a villain wanting to steal it while its being used. I would prefer that only the most trusted people actually use and carry it. This little row of lights will turn red if it in danger of being too full."

"What will you do with the temporal energy? What dangers does it pose to the user? Or if it was shot at a person?" Dragon asked. She was pretty sure that the PRT would want to have the device thoroughly tested.

"Not much to a person, really. It might chop off a few years off their lives if you had it on them for five minutes. And I would really, really suggest you don't overload it. You might end up aged to death. Or an infant. Or worse," Time Lady explained. "I'm going to use the excess chronal energy to work on some projects that might help a lot of people."

Armsmaster frowned at that. Her phrasing was specific, but she was not lying. His new lie detector was working pretty well then. He looked down at the device and 'stretched' out his ability to Tinker. And blinked in shock, as for the very first time, he could not visualize any way to optimize the gun like device. "How much power does this thing use to draw out the chronal energy?"

The Time Lady blinked at him. "It, uh, has about a terajoule I believe. But you would have to use it for years before it would need to be recharged. And its not very dangerous, you can't accidentally cause it to explode." There were ways to get around that, but she wasn't going to mention that.

Armsmaster was suddenly very attentively looking at the chronal absorber on the ratty conference table. "It has the power of a nuclear bomb in it? But it's safe to handle?" They had sensors that were supposed to spot this sort of thing. "What does it run off of?"

"A sort of antimatter-matter fuel-cell battery in a very tough casing. It would probably take a directed energy weapon capable of vaporizing titanium-coppelius to even get into it. And that would just start slowly unravelling the antimatter string containment. Mostly light and low radiation." She gave them a shrug. "That was actually going to be part of what I insisted on, that you don't try to take it apart. Otherwise, I'll have to take it back."

"And you made it?" he demanded.

"I would rather not go into that right now. Do you, or do you not, want the use of the item to free those people from that torture?" Time Lady countered in growing frustration.

"Yes, we do. I hope in the future that you will trust us more. Armsmaster, I believe that we should only allow the most senior and trusted Protectorate members use this with very strict instructions on how to do so." Dragon 'looked' over at the young teen from the screen. "How long would it take you to discharge the absorbed chronal energy?"

"About five minutes? It would probably take me longer to walk from the Transmat station to the fuel port," Time Lady mused.

"How many hours a day are you willing to work on this?" Armsmaster asked bluntly.

"I could fit in five or six hours right now. I may need to send out more than one of these." It might take a bit to hunt down more of the chronal absorbers.

"More would be better. Dragon, you'll handle the logistics of this?" Armsmaster asked. "Time Lady, I think we'll use the PRT headquarters. Dropping the shield out here would invite more problems."

"You just make sure that the teleporters are all onboard," Dragon said.

"Absolutely," he agreed. Armsmaster then turned to her, handing her a business card. "Call this phone number when you have a hard number on the devices."

"Sure. Thanks," Time Lady replied as she stood up.

"No, thank you. You are doing a really good thing here," Dragon said sincerely.

"Right," Armsmaster added after a moment.

They couldn't see it, but she had a huge smile on her face under the scarf.

* * *

Danny shook his head as he watched the TV, munching on his toast on Monday. The doorbell dinged, surprising him. He stood up while looking confused. He walked to the front door, blinking at Taylor's new friend.

"Good morning, Mr. Hebert!" Lisa called out. "Is Taylor awake yet?"

"Not yet. Let me go wake her up and see if she's planning on going out. Okay?" he asked.

At Lisa's nod, he headed up the stairs to pound on his daughter's bedroom door. Lisa quashed the urge to steal something to eat.

"Hey, Lisa!" Taylor called out as she came into the kitchen, her dad right behind her.

"Hello, Taylor." Lisa gave her a wide smile. "That really helped with my headache."

"No problem. Have you had breakfast?" she asked as she pulled out her own bowl and the box of cereal.

The other girl shook her head, her blue-streaked flying around. "Nope."

"Yes, you can have a bowl, too." Taylor laughed at her look.

Danny just had a grin. "Are you going to be going to Winslow High School in the fall?"

"Yes. I just have to do some extra legwork since I've moved into the area," Lisa lied with perfect aplomb, ignoring Taylor's questioning look.

"I hope you two have some classes together. Oh, the Protectorate is back in the news. They got almost a few hundred of the Gray Boy victims freed in only a few days. Seems like Time Lady has made a lot of friends," Danny said, pointing at the TV with his fork (with egg still stuck on it).

"Interesting," Taylor said blandly. "Hey dad, you're going to be late if you don't head out."

"What?" He checked his watch, then looked at the clock on the wall that was actually a bit hard to spot. "Damn, you're right. Think the battery on my watch is failing again. Good catch, kido." He shoveled the last of his eggs in his mouth, grabbed his toast and headed out to his old truck.

The door had barely slammed closed before Lisa looked over at her. "Time Lady? Really? And only two days to go public?"

"What? It's a perfectly valid name," Taylor said defensively.

The blonde's eyebrows rose at that. "In memory of your mother? How does that work? Oh, where's her shop? And the gizmo that revved up your brain." Whoops. Better slow down on the use of power, she noted to herself. The key on a chain around Taylor's neck was the key to her shop.

"I don't have a workshop. And my mother wasn't a cape, if that's what you were thinking." Taylor stretched her skinny arms above her head with a yawn. "I'm going to take a shower first, then we can talk about it." Her disguise must need extra work, she bemoaned silently.

"Sure. Can I have another bowl of cereal? I only had half a hamburger last night," Lisa said plaintively. And it was absolutely true. She only had half of it so she would be really hungry and wouldn't be lying today.

"Go ahead!" Taylor headed to the bathroom after grabbing a change of clothes.

Lisa munched on her Captain Crunch, a slight smile on her face. At the sound of the shower, she was moving up the stairs, a bobby pin in her hand from her first visit on Saturday. She needn't have bothered. Taylor hadn't locked the bathroom.

She opened the door and her hand snatched out, quietly kiefing the key. The door was shut just as silently and she tiptoed back down the stairs. She looked at the key. "Clock in the front room? Funky. Okay then."

She put the key in, turned the lock and opened the door. With a vulpine grin on her face she stepped into the TARDIS. She blinked once at the impossible vista.

Then Lisa grabbed her head and screamed.

* * *

Taylor got out of her shower ten minutes later, feeling much more human. Her long hair was a bit damp, but she would wash it tomorrow. It always took forever to dry-

WHERE WAS HER KEY?

The young half-alien quickly checked the bathroom over, not finding the key. She looked at the drain on the sink, but decided that the key and chain would not have managed to fall all the way down by itself. She wrapped a towel around herself (and double checked to make sure she had not worn it into the shower).

She quickly checked her bedroom, then headed down the stairs to let Lisa know what she was going to be a bit. Only Lisa was not in the kitchen. In fact, the bowl of cereal was suspiciously full.

That sent Taylor stomping towards the front room and the open door on the TARDIS.

"That bitch." She almost hissed that out. She slipped in the door, totally prepared to unleash the dogs of hell on her 'friend' when she spotted Lisa trying to pull herself up by the control console. "What did you do to yourself?" Her voice still carried a lot of anger.

"Walked in the door and had my power ripped from me," Lisa said woozily.

"Oh, shit. How did that happen?" Taylor stepped over to help her up. Her hand was tightly gripped on Lisa's bare forearm.

"If I had my power, I might figure it out. Shit-shit-fuck. Damn it, without my powers, I'm going to helpless out there on the streets-?" Her blue eyes went wide as it struck.

A crazed impressions of a pair of gigantic, unfathomable aliens that shed portions of their bodies across alternate realities as they came to Earth blasted her mind, causing her to stagger for a second.

"What the hell was that?" Taylor asked as she kept the other girl from falling.

"My power came back," Lisa said happily.

"No, that vision of the planet-sized pair of aliens," the young hero asked.

"The what? I... sort of remember that I saw something, but I don't recall that." The blonde looked confused at that. "How did you see anything?"

Taylor blinked her large, brown eyes. "Oh, I guess I might be a tactile telepathic. Except I'm pretty sure I don't know how to use it. That could be a problem."

"The hell? What the fucking hell? You're an alien?" Lisa then blinked. "Oh, and you might want to grab your towel before it falls off.

"Gah! Oh well, I might as well change into my outfit." She headed off to the door opposite the main door, her key clutched firmly in her hand while holding her slipping towel with the other.

Lisa followed behind her casually. She waited about a minute at the door that Taylor had disappeared into, then knocked. "You decent?"

"Decent enough," Taylor shouted back.

Lisa opened the door and blinked at the large bedroom, filled with books, clothing, dressers and wardrobes. "Someone likes clothing. So how about I get the less abbreviated version of 'what the hell?'."

"All of this I didn't know existed before Friday," the brunette explained as she pulled up a sturdy set of slacks and tucked in a button up blouse of black.

"Really? You just stumbled into all of this? No hints from your mother?" She didn't sound convinced.

"My mother used a device to turn herself into a normal human, to disguise herself and hide from her race's mortal enemies, the Daleks. Then she died in a car accident." That still hurt.

"And you found the trigger that was supposed to revert her and it turned you into one of them. That's interesting. How is the double heartbeat working out?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Double what?" Then Taylor thought about it for a long moment. "Huh. I do have that, don't I?"

"You have a lot of information in your head you don't know yet, don't you? So an entire alien knowledge base? Damn, now that's a cool Thinker power." That got her to whistle in appreciation.

"Um, I think she was the equivalent of a teen, but she knows a lot by our standards. She was thrown in as the lowest ranked officer on the TARDIS and of the ten people here, was the only survivor because she was manning the quinery control station. The Daleks were getting really good at taking out the control rooms to cripple a TARDIS. So now I have a broken time machine ship that I probably can't fly and a lot of really advanced gadgets I don't dare let any Tinkers get a hold of because they're likely to blow up the planet." Taylor finished tying up her boots, then stood up. "I'm still very angry at you. You stole my key and broke into the TARDIS."

"I borrowed the key to force you to let me in, because you weren't going to for months. If ever. Once I really knew, you don't have an excuse to keep me out," Lisa countered firmly, looking her directly blue eyes to Taylor's brown ones.

"You-" Taylor was seething, but didn't retaliate because of one simple thing. She did not seem to be lying. And Taylor was honest enough with herself to see where the other girl was coming from. She slumped back to sit on the bed. "I just wanted it for myself for a while."

"And you would have kept not letting anyone in. So I sort of shoved you out of your comfort zone. And besides, this is big. Aliens are real!" Lisa had a wonder in her voice she thought she had lost out on the streets all these last few weeks after she ran away from home.

Taylor tilted her head. "And I think they are behind Parahumans, though I'm not sure of the specifics." She'd have to do some research.

"Huh. That even makes sense. So what are you doing getting dressed up like this?"

"It's my Time Lady outfit." Taylor added a pistol to a shoulder holster that would be hidden under her jacket, a back up sonic screwdriver in a back pocket, her Transmat beacon and finally a small forcefield generator. Just in case. She took out a small pocket device that she made sure was turned on. "Perception filter, active." She grinned at Lisa.

"Nice. It messes your memory? So even after just seeing you, I can only see the red-headed version of you. Unless I squint? Or look out of the side of my peripheral vision?" Lisa tapped her toes anxiously. "Can I come?"

"You want to come with me to the PRT Headquarters? And you don't have a costume," the taller girl countered.

"Puh-lease, I could make a cool outfit with the stuff here, even if I'd have to wear a belt. Besides, its not like you are doing anything really dangerous, right?" She had a wide grin on her face again.

"And joining the Wards might get you off the street?" Taylor noted softly.

That caught Lisa off guard. "Well, maybe. But I think they'd try to send me back to my parents. And I'd rather die." She headed over to a wardrobe. "So what should I use for a name?"

"Insight. Your power lets you figure things out, right? Oh, I need to grab that from the medkit, just in case." Taylor pulled out the medical scanner and nano-dispenser, stuffing them in another pocket.

In about ten minutes, Lisa had changed into another pair of dark slacks, a ruffled blouse and a garish red and black vest. She had somehow found a sort of ceramic-white half mask that covered the top half of her face and and covered the hairline on her forehead. With her hair tied back in a tight ponytail, she looked totally different. "Insight, ready to go!" the new cape declared.

"I just hope Armsmaster won't get upset."

"Do I get any gadgets?" Insight asked hopefully.

"I should probably give you a perception filter, too. Dark hair? Green eyes?" Taylor said.

"Sure."

Another small box was pulled out and Taylor started working on it for five minutes with a sonic screwdriver. "There we go. Let's go get the chronal absorbers and deliver them to the Protectorate and PRT."

Time Lady led them back to the control room, making sure to lock the door and have her key around her neck.

"Is that the Endbringers?" Insight blurted out in surprise as she looked at an LCD screen on the control console.

The proto-Time Lord walked over to her to look at the floating gold particle screen. "Yes, I think. Not that the TARDIS is in any shape to be used to attack them. It's missing a large chunk of its mass and it would take it centuries to heal up."

"Heal? It's alive." Insight blinked. "It is alive. Whoa."

"Well, now to use the Transmat after grabbing the widgets."

Insight looked at her suspiciously. "What is a Transmat?"

"Teleport beam, basically. Think Star Trek."

"Sheesh. What couldn't these guys do?"

Time Lady opened her mouth for a second, then closed it. "You know, I have no idea."

The other girl just stared at her in shock. It took Time Lady calling out to her from the door for her to following again.

* * *

Dauntless sighed as he checked his watch again. Ten minutes late and-

A double flash of red streaming particles turned into two figures.

"Are you my contact today?" Time Lady asked. She had a cardboard box under her arm.

The armored and fantasy themed hero looked over at the other girl.

"My companion. And yes, she's a parahuman," Time Lady explained.

"I'm Insight. Nice to meet you," the second figure said.

"You should have called ahead and let us know," the young Protectorate hero noted.

"Sorry, I was running late because of her," Time Lady grumbled.

Insight just snickered at that even as her keen eyes looked over the hero in front of her.

"But anyways, I have the five chronal absorbers. Who's going to be transporting them first?" Time Lady asked.

"Myrddin was here first. He's the leader of the Chicago Protectorate and doesn't like people wasting his time. But I guess if you had a reasonable excuse... What sort of powers do you bring to the table, Insight?" Dauntless asked as he shouldered his lance.

"A type of thinker where I can figure things out. I can't use it a lot yet and it gives me headaches," she admitted mostly in truth.

"Come along then." He unlocked the door to the 'arrival' room with his security card and eye scan.

Insight was looking around with eager interest.

Dauntless knocked on the door to another room, opening it at the 'enter' that sounded out from inside it. "She was a bit late because her friend decided to join her."

Armsmaster and the robed figure of Myrddin were watching them the new entrants intently.

"Putting on a mask doesn't make you a Parahuman. Let me guess, she said she's a thinker of some sort?" Armsmaster said in a cold voice. He hated it when people did this.

"Ah," Dauntless managed to say. Oops.

"Why, yes I am. Like the fact that you are being aggressive because you feel threatened by being in the same room as Myrddin and Dauntless. Some issues about feeling like you are being left behind, that you tinker devices aren't keeping up with the- szszszs?" Insight was saying, only to blink as her voice turned to static. She looked over at Time Lady and started glaring.

"No tearing people down with your power," Time Lady ordered. "Otherwise I mute you." She had her sonic screwdriver which was emitting a tone gave it a wave while pointing at her.

Armsmaster was positively burning holes in the young woman with his angry stare. "Yes, heroes don't tear down people." He wasn't really like that, was he?

Myrddin nodded himself. "While that was interesting, I need to get going. Gray Boy hit a lot of people in the Chicago Metro area. I'll drop off one to Legend and Alexandria, who are going to fly around to several locations that Dragon has mapped out. I should be back in about an hour, all in all."

He took the proffered cardboard box and then with a tap of his staff on the floor, disappeared.

"Well, I guess we should be off, too," Time Lady said. "I've got some thing I can do while waiting."

Armsmaster held up a hand. "One second, please. The Protectorate and PRT would like to be able to get in contact with you and make it easier for you to call us securely. So I procured one of our high end secure phones for you use. Just so you know, it masks itself so we would not know where you are or can track you. Just in case you were worried." He held out a blocky 1" thick smartphone.

"And you can even use it to call us if you are running late," Dauntless said with a grin that you could hear in his voice.

The young half-alien nodded even as she pocketed her sonic screwdriver. "Um, thanks? I guess." She was staring at the phone very closely. Where the hell had she seen that before? It looked really similar to a popular one, but it had a few small differences.

"Um, Armsmaster? Sorry about that, but you kind of hit one of my buttons about my power," Insight half-lied to the local Protectorate leader.

He nodded. "You wouldn't believe how many people (though mostly teens) try to bring their friend along to join up also. I jumped to a conclusion. It's rare to find two new parahumans at the same time."

Insight had to bite her tongue as he did not apologize for his action, just explained it.

"Ready, Insight?" Time Lady asked with her hands in her trenchcoat pockets. She needed to add something to help keep this outfit cool inside.

"Sure, oh master oh master."

"That's not funny," the other girl retorted.

"Says the girl with the mute button," Insight replied frostily.

With a flash, they disappeared and reappeared in between two transmat devices.

"I was trying to keep you from pissing him off enough so that didn't burn the bridge into the Wards. Which I'm pretty sure you were about to do. It was less violent that pulling on your ponytail which was my first thought," Taylor said as she pulled down her scarf. "I definitely need to figure out a way to keep myself cooler while wearing this."

Lisa opened her mouth, then rethought. "Okay, it was better than letting me rip into that jerk or pulling my hair. So what are you going to do now?"

"First? I'm going to do something really, really scary."

That got raised eyebrows in question.

"I'm going to move the TARDIS into my bedroom. Luckily, it has an improved Chameleon Circuit, so it leaves a mundane duplicate behind."

"And why is it scary?" Lisa asked.

"Because I'm not sure if it will blow up if we dematerialize. I don't think it will, but it's a non-zero possibility," Taylor admitted candidly. "I'm just trying to figure out if I should do a fast hop or take it slow."

That got the other girl thinking hard, her head starting to pound in pain. "Fast. I get the feeling that if you take it slow, it might lose control."

"Okay then." Taylor trotted off to the control room and started manipulating the controls, floating holographic screens showing her 'programmed' flight. She looked over at Lisa. "Did you want to get out?"

"No, I trust you. You think you can do this, so we should be fine," she replied.

"Brake is off-"

"How do you have brakes on dematerializing?" Lisa demanded.

"-and initiating."

A heavy hum filled the front room of the Hebert's as it vibrated in sympathy. Taylor swiped three controls and slapped a palm onto the actual metal. Another hum filled the air as her dresser appeared in the TARDIS control room.

"And... I think that's it? Oh, let me put the brake on."

"Taylor? Why didn't we just drag the clock up the stairs?" Lisa asked suddenly.

"Because it's heavy?"

"But it would not have blown up!"

Taylor actually thought on that for a second. "Oh. Right."


End file.
